{% include "includes/auth/janrain/signIn_traditional.html" with message='It looks like you are already verified. If you still have trouble signing in, you probably need a new confirmation link email.' %}

Texas women leaders speak out against 'bathroom bills'

Texas women leaders speak out against 'bathroom bills'

Libby Averyt, United Way of the Coastal Bend’s chief development officer, spoke Tuesday outside the Capitol against bills that would regulate bathroom and locker room use by transgender Texans. Averyt joined dozens of women business and community leader from across the state to speak against bathroom bills. JOHNATHAN SILVER/ AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Dozens of women business and community leaders from across the state gathered on the south steps of the Capitol on Tuesday to tell lawmakers they don’t feel threatened by sharing restrooms with transgender women and don’t appreciate discriminatory policy being made in their name.

More than 600 business leaders and officials from chambers of commerce and local visitors bureaus have spoken against such legislation.

“When people think about where to call home and where to spend money, they look at the whole state, and the data is clear: increasing numbers of talented workers do not want to be associated with a place that enacts legalized discrimination against people who are already vulnerable,” said Diane Crawford, Irving-based Celanese Corporation global commercial operations director.

Social conservatives pushing bathroom legislation have said that they want to protect women and girls from harm by men and to maintain privacy.

The Senate approved a bathroom bill in the first week of the special legislative session, But House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, and other like-minded Republicans in the House oppose such legislation and it appears to have little chance of making it to the House floor for a vote before the end of the session next week.

Libby Averyt, a United Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce board member, said she isn’t worried about her safety in restrooms.

“Like most mothers, I have been fiercely protective of my children,” she said, “but never, ever have I felt threatened in a bathroom or a locker room, and I am skeptical that the safety and privacy of women and children is the true motive behind these bills.”

Leslie Wingo, president and CEO of Sander Wingo and El Paso Chamber of Commerce board member, offered a motive.

“This bill is about one thing,” she said. “This bill is about fear. This is not a privacy issue. This is not a women’s issue. This is a discrimination issue.”

Critics of bathroom legislation say it will harm transgender Texans, who are already a marginalized group. Data show that the debate in Texas alone has increased fear and calls to LGBT crisis hotlines, said Kimberly Shappley, a Houston resident and mother of a transgender girl.

“I don’t want my child to be a statistic of the 2017 special session,” she said.

Lawmakers have repeatedly been warned by experts about the harm that lies ahead if restroom restrictions go into effect, so they cannot claim ignorance should it happen, Shappley said.

“We must all recognize by their actions and their deeds,” she said, “that increasing the hate crimes, murder rate and suicide of transgender Texans can no longer be claimed as unintentional.”